Was it nearer God, I wonder, because so far
from man and his little works and ways? At least they seemed little
there, in presence of the tokens of a catastrophe which had not only
blown off a mountain top, and scattered it over the island, but had
disembowelled the mountain itself to a depth of 2000 feet.
Soon after noon we began to descend; and in a hollow of the
mountain, not far from the ragged edge of the crater, then filled up
with billows of cloud, we came upon what we were searching for; not,
however, one or two, but thousands of silverswords, their cold,
frosted silver gleam making the hill-side look like winter or
moonlight. They can be preserved in their beauty by putting them
under a glass shade, but it must be of monstrous dimensions, as the
finer plants measure 2 ft. by 18 in. without the flower stalk. They
exactly resemble the finest work in frosted silver, the curve of
their globular mass of leaves is perfect; and one thinks of them
rather as the base of an epergne for an imperial table, or as a
prize at Ascot or Goodwood, than as anything organic. A particular
altitude and temperature appear essential to them, and they are not
found straggling above or below a given line.
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